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Reason TV has a very fine lecture by Bjorn Lomberg on global warming available. Bjorn is one of the few people out there who represent a position similar to mine. Yes, it is happening; yes, there will be winners and losers… but it is not the end of the world. He shows in case after case how governments are throwing away billions upon billions of dollars, pounds, and yen for ‘solutions’ which will have virtually no effect at all. It is well worth watching. December 16th, 2008 | 104 comments - (Comments are closed)
 Not much information yet but a Marine fighter is down in a residential area on the approach to Miramar. No fatalities reported so far: the pilot ejected and there are no reports of deaths on the ground. That might well change but I hope the worst result is only a destroyed home. Unless things have changed since 1978 when I was doing a building automation system for them, the County of San Diego has its main building complex just off the end of one of the runways at Miramar, so one would presume services were quite rapidly on the scene. It’s definite. No casualties. Later reports indicate the early good news was wrong, sadly. There may have been three casualties on the ground. December 9th, 2008 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
Jane’s reports the following:
When it is steam boat time, you steam… December 5th, 2008 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
I have still not seen any results from the testing earlier this year, but those results must have been at least passingly interesting, because the Navy is funding further development. The Bussard Fusion device, the Polywell, uses pure electrostatic containment and has more in common with the old vacuum tube (or valves as they were know over here) than it does with the multi-billion dollar electromagnetic confinement projects most people are familiar with. It is still far from certain the technology will pan out, but it has gone much further into the the real hardware realm than any other low cost fusion technology to date. If this device does work, what can we do with it? What impacts do you think a device would have which could produce 10 MW of electricity from a 1.5 meter sphere and (initially) perhaps a truckload of auxiliary gear? Submarines, aircraft carriers, laser cannon power systems, entire towns with self-sufficiency in power, ion engines for outer planet exploration, power for lunar and Mars settlements… What can you come up with? December 4th, 2008 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
The Lakota Sioux have a number of long time libertarian supporters amongst them so I was not totally surprised to hear about the Free Lakota Bank. This new institution is issuing 100% backed currency and supplies many normal banking services. Unlike the Liberty Dollar effort, the Lakota will not be a pushover for the Statists. As you may remember, the Liberty Dollar facility was invaded and assets stolen by the Feds. The Lakota, on the other hand, have armed warriors for local security and if Statists invade sovereign Indian lands, it would not be the first time they got their arses sent back across the reservation line with tails stuffed up their bungholes. It is my understanding this effort has the full support of the Free State Project. I hope we will hear more from them in the comments section. I also extend a hearty welcome to anyone associated with the Lakota bank and an invitation to drop in and give us a sales pitch. I would particularly be interested in their privacy practices. December 1st, 2008 | 50 comments - (Comments are closed)
Reason TV has used a brilliantly educational Donald Duck cartoon as a starting point in a video on current monetary problems. I think it is pitched at just about the right level to educate our politicians about economics. They may be able to print money but they have not yet figured out how to print value. December 1st, 2008 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
It is a strange old world. About 2 weeks ago I was on a flight from Huntsville, Alabama, where I took part in the National Space Society board meeting, back to Washington, DC where I had some consulting work lined up. As I and two other board members walked to the luggage retrieval area, I commented that if someone had told me twenty years ago I would find three people from my address book on a Presidential Transition Team I would have thought them crazy. One compatriot said, “You know what that means don’t you?” “No”, was my puzzled answer. “You’re now a genuine Washington Insider”, he replied. I did know one of the Bush 2000 space transition team really well and a second shared many contacts with me. This time around is different. I find it very strange to find people I have known for decades and in two cases worked with for years, in actual position to define space policy for the next four to eight years. The good news is, they are all good people who are both aware of New Space and who wish it to succeed. At least two of them have tried to work angles to get their own private sector trips into space. What I do not know is how much real influence they will have on globally important issues. I know for a fact all of them are aware of the disaster that is ‘ITAR’, a regime whose purported purpose was to prevent transfer of weapons related knowledge and hardware and whose actual, unintended consequence, has been the creation of competitive non-US space industries. Niches, whether biological or market, will be filled and all the State’s horses and all the State’s men working together can do nought but delay that inevitability. With Hillary Clinton in State, there is a personal channel of communication available for this issue from within the transition team membership. I very much hope they use it. November 26th, 2008 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)
SpaceX tested the Falcon 9 a few days ago, November 22nd, on their giant test stand in McGregor Texas. I have reported previously as SpaceX increased the numbers of engines by a few at a time each test and am happy to report they have now succeeded in firing the nine Merlin engines in a sequence and for a period of time identical to that of a real mission. Nine engines fired for 160 seconds; two were then shutdown and the remaining seven burned until the 178 second mark. The two engine shutdowns are done in the later stages of flight when much of the fuel mass has been burned off and the ‘G forces’ climb. This spare ‘oomph’ means a Falcon 9 can lose two engines and still reach the required orbit. The stage developed 855,000 pounds of thrust at sea level. This will increase to about 1 million in vacuum. The Falcon 9 is not a little rocket. A first flight attempt is expected from their Cape Canaveral pad during the first half of the coming year. I am not betting on a successful first flight, although it is a possibility. While the Merlin is now a fairly well understood engine, there are complex dynamic interactions between engines when you fly with more than one. I am sure Elon’s team has modeled and tested to the best of their ability, but simulations and ground tests are still ‘theory’ relative to real live flight. I have no doubts whatever that the SpaceX team will have Falcon 9 flying for hire within the next two years. You can watch the test here November 26th, 2008 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
Greg Nemitz is running a write-in campaign for the Idaho 2nd Congressional District:
I have absolutely no idea if we have any readers in that district, but if you are one, check out his campaign video. Greg is an acquaintance of mine through aerospace circles. We first crossed paths on the internet a couple decades ago and I have even met him in person a few times. October 21st, 2008 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
Fox News asks the question: “Will Obama’s $604M Haul Kill Off Public Financing?” Ask any Libertarian and I am sure the answer you will hear is: “I certainly hope so!”. No Libertarian presidential candidate has ever accepted stolen funds for their campaign. Perhaps the attempts to regulate political speech have simply reached the point at which even a Socialist Democrat recognizes they are better off not accepting State controlled financing. If the Republicans stay out of the trough as well four years now, perhaps we will at least get the State out of campaign financing. October 20th, 2008 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)
Through the miracles of modern technology, Bob Barr will be delivering live replies to the questions put to those ‘other parties’ candidates tonight. You can read more here and get the link for the live broadcast. As it will be at 9pm US eastern time, I will probably not be watching it from here! October 15th, 2008 | Comments are closed
I am sure most of our readers are not amongst those who can write checks for $200,000 to fly Virgin Galactic a few years from now. The first will be ‘high flyers’ of the sort who always subsidize new market frontiers. They will pay the high price to be early adopters and by doing so they will generate the capital required to lower costs as companies begin to fight for market share. That is capitalism at work and it is just the way we like it. Markets have a certain ponderous inevitability. They take time. If you have neither the money nor the desire to wait twenty years, there is another option. At this point I must stop a moment and note that I am on the Board of Directors of the National Space Society (NSS) and have been part of the space activist cadre since Adam first looked up and dreamed of giant space colonies at Lagrange 5. So I really want lots of folk to look at this competition and join in. This is not a lottery of any kind. The NSS and Virgin Galactic have worked together to make it possible for one person to earn their way onto a SpaceShipTwo flight near the end of the decade. All you have to do is join NSS and work your butt off in the community promoting the future of humans in space. The person who is judged to have done this most successfully will be selected as our Space Ambassador. They will be expected to work even harder at this task upon their return to terra firma. I will not be signing up myself as I am hoping I will find other ways to earn my way off planet. The point of this initiative is to let folk like you believe you can turn your dreams into reality. Ad Astra… and next year in L5! October 14th, 2008 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
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